Bambi (film)
Bambi is a 1942 Disney animated feature produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres by Walt Disney Pictures and RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942. The fifth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is based on the 1923 book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten. The main characters are Bambi, a deer who is the young prince of the forest, his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother), and his friends Thumper (a pink-nosed rabbit), Flower (a skunk), and his childhood girlfriend and future mate, Faline. For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing Bambi's species into a white-tailed deer from his original species of roe deer, since roe deer don't inhabit the United States, and the white-tailed deer is more familiar to most Americans. This film received 3 Academy Award nominations for Best Sound, Best Song for "Love is a song", and Original Music Score. In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi was acknowledged as the third best film in the animation genre. Disney later released a sequel, Bambi II, in 2006. Plot A miracle in the woods The movie begins with a long camera zoom through the forest at dawn and all the creatures beginning to wake up, or back to sleep due to some being nocturnal. Suddenly, a blue bird spreads the news about something. Thumper (a young rabbit) wakes up an old owl named “Friend Owl”, who asks what is happened. Thumper and his sisters tell him that a new prince is born. Wanting to see the newborn fawn, Friend Owl flies off to the area where the young prince was born, along with many other animals. Upon reaching the area, the animals come across the mother and her two-hour old fawn lying by her side. The animals congratulate her. She then urges her new fawn to wake up and see everybody. He wakes up and takes a good, long look at all the animals surrounding him. At first, he is frightened of Friend Owl, who gives a friendly hoot, but then builds some courage and manages to make a shy smile. He then tries to get up. Due to him being very young, be can hardly keep his balance. Thumper comments that he is sort off unstable. The young prince then falls backwards back into his resting spot, causing some laughter and delight among the creatures. The fawn then lies back into his resting area and gives a big yawn. Friend Owl says to the creatures that it maybe time for them to leave. They all leave, except for Thumper, who asks the fawn’s mother what his name will be. She replies that she is thinking of naming him “Bambi.” Thumper, liking the name, says good buy to her and runs off to join his family. Happy with the name, Bambi’s mother snuggles up with her new born, sleeping fawn. The camera then pulls up from the small bush to reveal Bambi’s father, The Great Prince of the Forest, looking down at them from a nearby cliff ledge. Exploring the forest Three days later, Bambi and his mother are taking a walk through the forest. Bambi falls behind a little bit, getting distracted by some greeting animal neighbors. When trying to catch up to his mother, he gets stuck on a tall, thick blade of grass and slips. Upon seeing his fall, Thumper and his family run over to the young prince, asking his mother if he is alright. She replies that he is doing fine. Thumper then replies, saying that Bambi still can not walk very well. His reply makes his mother remind him of what his father told him that morning about “rude talk”. Bambi then gets back up onto his feet, and is able to continue walking, with Thumper and his sisters journeying along side of him. They then begin to explore the forest, first encountering a fallen log in which Thumper teaches him how to jump (though it did not turn out the way he was planning). They then come across some birds eating some berries. Thumper then teaches Bambi how to say bird, who dose not get it right the first time, but with a little encouragement from Thumper, his sisters, and the birds orbiting around his head he is able to say it, shouting out on the top of his lungs “Bird!” Happy with his success, Thumper and his sisters run off to tell Bambi’s mother and their mother what the young prince’s first word was, while Bambi runs off chasing a butterfly (thinking it to be a bird). Thumper then tells him that it is not a bird, but a butterfly. The butterfly then flies off, leaving Bambi into thinking that the huge yellow flower in front of him is the butterfly he saw. Thumper then tells him that it is a flower and that they smell great. Bambi tries smelling the flowers of the small field, but comes face to face with young skunk. Bambi calls the young skunk a flower, which leaves Thumper rolling over his backside with laughter, saying that the skunk is not a flower. The skunk then says that it is alright if they can call him flower, which makes Bambi happy and “Flower” bashful. April Showers The day grows late and it is time for Thumper to return home, leaving Bambi back with his mother. Off in the distance, a rainstorm is gathering and coming closer. Scared of the clashing of the lightening, Bambi snuggles next to his mother’s side. He is then wakened by the noise of some nearby raindrops, which then forms a small brook flowing right past his resting area. Soon, the whole forest is alive with raindrops dropping about. The creatures living in the forest run for shelter from the falling water. Suddenly, the violent part of the storm comes when lightening explodes about in bright flash of light and produces tons of loud noises, leaving Bambi frightened. Soon, the storm parts and the sunset of in the distance slowly goes down. Bambi, now asleep next to his mother’s side, snuggles up with his mother as the last drops of the storm fall into the nearby overflowing brook. The Meadow The next scene opens up a few weeks later, when Bambi is now capable of speaking. His mother is going to take him to the meadow. Bambi, who has never been to the meadow, asks his mother what a meadow is. He then continues to talk to her, until they reach the edge of the big meadow. Bambi is eager to go, but his mother stops and tells him that the meadow is also a dangerous place. She then tells him to stay behind in the thicket while she looks around to see if the place is safe. After a long while, the wide field appears to be safe. Bambi then runs out and tries to catch up with his mother, who runs off in a fast pace, playing with him. After a while, Bambi encounters Thumper and his family again, eating clovers. Bambi wants to eat some of the clovers as well, which makes Thumper tell him that the blossoms are the only parts to eat, which are really not. His mother then reminds him what his father told him that morning. He then recites the small limerick about eating the green parts of clovers, including a new line that he made up. Bambi then walks off and almost steps on a frog. He fallows the frog over to a small poll of water, which the frog jumps in. Bambi, however, is left on the shore, staring at his never before seen reflection. It startles him at first, but then gets used to it. Suddenly, another reflection appears on the water on his side. He then looks up at the unknown source which turns out to be another fawn, a female fawn (save for the cartoon-like sequence with Faline, animated by Ward Kimball). Feeling frightened of the young fawn’s presence, Bambi runs back up to his mother for protection. His mother happens to be talking to the other fawn’s mother, whose name is Ena, and is also Bambi’s aunt. The young female fawn’s name turns out to be Faline. Bambi’s mother encourages Bambi to say hello to Faline. Bambi replies no while Faline laughs at his shyness. Bambi’s mother then asks if he is afraid, to which he replies no again. Having no choice, he greets her. With that said Faline suddenly breaks out in giggles and acting hyperactive. Bambi, however, backs off in fear and falls into a small puddle. While sitting there in the water, Bambi gets pestered by Faline with numerous licks on the cheeks. Finally, after one more lick and giggle Bambi jumps out and charges at Faline with anger. Faline runs off in fear at first, but, gradually, both of them start a small game of tag. Suddenly, from out of the surrounding forest, a huge herd of bucks appear from out of nowhere. Faline runs away in fear while Bambi remains, filled with excitement while watching the bucks bound across the field. He even tries running alongside of them, but ends up almost getting trampled. Suddenly, they all stop. Wondering why, Bambi walks over. The reason appears in front of him. It is no other then the Great Prince, Bambi’s father (though Bambi does not know it yet). After a brief look at his son, the Great Prince walks off, leaving Bambi behind. Bambi then asks his mother why everyone stood still when the mysterious stag walked by and who he was. His mother tells him that he is respected by all and that he is very old and very wise. Thus explaining the reason why he is called “The Great Prince of the Forest.” The next part fallows the Great Prince during his walk through the forest. Suddenly, the silence of the forest is broken when a flock of crows fly past, yelling and spreading out an alarm of a certain danger. The Great Prince then senses the danger and runs back towards the meadow. Once there he warns the herd. Sensing the danger as well, the herd and all the other creatures begin to retreat from the meadow towards the forest. Soon, the whole meadow is full of retreating frightened animals, running for protection. Faline and Thumper unite with their mothers and manage to escape, but Bambi gets left behind, searching for his mother. His mother is also looking for him as well. Suddenly, the meadow is completely empty. Though everything is still, something dangerous and deadly is still approaching. Sensing the danger, but to still frightened, Bambi is left out in the open, still searching for his mother. Suddenly, the Great Prince appears from behind him and escorts him and his mother to safety of the forest. Off in the distance (offscreen), something spots them and tries getting them, but ends up missing just when they reach safety in the forest. A few minutes later, the danger is gone and the forest returns to normal. Bambi’s mother exits the entrance of their den and looks around. Seeing no danger, she tells Bambi that everything is alright. Bambi then asks his mother what happened and why they all ran. And what was the danger anyway? After a moment of silence, his mother replies “Man... was in the forest.” Reception, popularity, and Bambi II Although the film received good reviews, it was criticized for being inappropriate for children because of the death of Bambi's mother as well as the scary violence of the hunting scenes, dog attacks, and the forest fire climax. It also was a box office flop due to WWII. Yet, in today's environment of violence, to so-called “professional critics", the film has a reputation of being a "boring, plot less, overly cute, climax less film." Still, at the same time it also has been known as both classic and a masterpiece, and has received a Platinum Edition Disney DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 1st, 2005, followed by a straight-to-VHS/DVD midqual by the name of Bambi II, which follows the death of Bambi's mother and fills the gap that was made when Bambi follows his father into the thicket. Censorship The death of Bambi's mother is one of the best-known moments in American film history, a moment so upsetting to certain children that they had to be carried sobbing out of the theater during numerous theatrical presentations. For this reason, and because of the horror and violence of the climactic hunting/forest fire sequence, many critics question the suitability of Bambi for very young audiences. When Bambi was shown during the Christmas period in December 2006 on UK channel ITV 2, the scene of the death of Bambi's Mother and the Prince telling Bambi of her death was edited out. When one takes Bambi together with the other Disney feature films created during the same period of the early 40s, such as the dark Pinocchio, the powerful Fantasia, and the serious Victory Through Air Power, one can see an attempt by Walt Disney to produce films pushing against the stereotype of Disney animation being "children's films". Nonetheless, it wasn't until nearly 40 years later that The Disney Company featured the death of a parent in one of their movies (Tod's mother in The Fox and the Hound), and more than 50 years before it happened again (Mufasa dies in The Lion King). The off-screen villain "man" has been placed #20 on AFI's List of Heroes and Villians. Controversy and Smokey Bear wildfire prevention The U.S. Secretary of the Interior has criticized the movie Bambi for propagating the idea that the best way to manage the forest resources within the U.S. was to fight forest fires. The Secretary of the Interior points out that controlled burning is now recognized as more beneficial, and that forest animals, such as Bambi, simply move out of the way of forest fires and, in general, are not killed by them. In 1942, the animated feature film Bambi was released. Soon after, Walt Disney allowed his characters to appear in fire prevention public service campaigns. However, Bambi was only loaned to the government for a year, so a new symbol was needed, leading to the creation of Smokey Bear. In 2006, the Ad Council, in partnership with the United States Forest Service, started a series of Public Service Announcement ads that featured footage from Bambi and, more often, Bambi II for wildfire prevention. During the ads, as the Bambi footage is shown, the screen will momentarily fade into black with the text "Don't let our forests...become once upon a time", and usually (but not always) ending the ads with Bambi's line "Mother, what we gonna do today?" followed by Smokey Bear saying "Only you can prevent wildfires" as the Smokey logo is shown on the screen. The ads air on various television networks and the Ad Council has also put them on Youtube. Copyrights The copyrights for Bambi were inherited by Anna Wyler, Salten's daughter, who renewed them in 1954. After her death, Wyler's husband sold the rights to Twin Books, which subsequently filed a law suit against Disney, claiming Disney owed it money for the continued licensing. Twin Books filed suite with Disney, arguing it was owed money for the use of the book. Disney countered by claiming that Salten had published the story in 1923 without a copyright notice, and was thus immediately entered into the public domain. Disney also argued that if the claimed 1923 publication date was accurate, then the copyright renewal filed in 1954 had been registered after the deadline and was thus invalid. The courts initially upheld Disney's view, however in 1996; the Ninth Circuit Court reversed the decision on appeal. Pre-production Sidney Franklin originally initiated "Bambi" as a film project in 1933, envisioning it as a live action film. He had even gone to the stage of recording Margaret Sullivan and Victor Jory's voices for the soundtrack. Eventually he realized that the technology simply wasn't adequate enough to make the film. After seeing "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), it dawned on Franklin that there was someone who could realize "Bambi" as a movie. So he contacted Walt Disney who immediately leapt at the idea of working on the project. Disney started work on the film in 1936, though he was also developing "Fantasia", "Dumbo" and "Pinocchio" at the same time. All this explains why there is a dedication in the film's opening credits "To Sidney A. Franklin - our sincere appreciation for the inspiring collaboration". Pre-production began in 1936 and was intended to be Disney's second full-length animated film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney's perfection and quest for realism delayed the project significantly, so that Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, and Dumbo were released earlier than Bambi. Walt Disney attempted to achieve realistic detail in this animated film. The artists heard lectures from animal experts, and visited the Los Angeles Zoo. A pair of fawns (named Bambi and Faline) were shipped from the area of present day Baxter State Park in Maine to the studio so that the artists could see first-hand the movement of these animals. The source of these fawns, from the Eastern United States, was the impetus for the transformation of Felix Salten's roe deer to white-tailed deer. Disney animators spent a year studying and drawing deer and fawns to perfect the look of Bambi and his parents and friends. Deer are notoriously difficult to render in human terms as their eyes are on either side of their face, their mouth does not lend itself to speech and they have no real chin. Ultimately animator Mark Davis resolved these difficulties by infusing the character of Bambi with the traits of a human baby. The look of the film was inspired by the work of Tyrus Wong, a Chinese animator whose sketches used softened backgrounds. This meant that the focus was squarely on the beautifully drawn animals. The background of the film was also the Eastern woodlands. One of the earliest and best known artists for the Disney studio, Maurice "Jake" Day spent several weeks in the Vermont and Maine forests, sketching and photographing deer, fawns, and the surrounding wilderness areas. The Disney studios were walking a very precarious line financially, and were constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. A studio strike and, of course, the outbreak of war - which deprived them of their lucrative European market - didn't help matters. Disney was able to secure another loan from the Bank of America, but when both "Fantasia" and "Dumbo" failed at the box office, a lot was riding on "Bambi" to be a success. "Bambi" premiered August 8, 1942 in London, a very daring move in the midst of war, and a few days later in New York. The world premiere of this film was scheduled to be in the tiny Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta, Maine, USA. Maurice Day, an animator with Disney, brought Felix Salten's book to the attention of Walt Disney, and when Walt decided to make the movie he thanked Maurice by planning to hold the premiere in Maurice's home town. However, the State of Maine objected, fearing that hunters would be offended by the film, and the actual world premiere was elsewhere. Despite glowing reviews, it was an initial box office disappointment. This prompted Disney to re-release "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in the summer of 1944, a tactic that the studio regularly adopts now for all their animated features. "Bambi" lost money at the box office for the first run, but recouped its considerable cost (over $2,000,000) during the 1947 re-release. Recycled animation from Bambi in other films Animation from Bambi has been reused in several other Disney films, especially footage of birds, leaves and generic woodland. For example, one scene in The Fox and the Hound reused footage of the animals running from the rain in Bambi's “Little April Shower” sequence. The most notable reused footage from Bambi, however, is the few seconds of Bambi's mother looking up from eating grass just before she is killed by the hunter. This footage has been used in hunting scenes in The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book. It is also featured in The Rescuers, during the song "Someone's Waiting For You" and in the opening shot of Beauty and the Beast. Bambi and his mom both appear in a Donald Duck short called "No Hunting", drinking from a stream. Several minor characters from the film also made cameo appearances in other films, for example: the blue bird from the "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" segment appears in Alice in Wonderland, the hunting dogs appear in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and the ducks and quail from the "April Showers" segment appear in The Fox and the Hound. Release history Release dates Re-release schedule & home video Bambi was released in theaters in 1942, during World War II and was Disney's 5th full length animated film. It was an advance over the previous movies in sophistication of the animation, due to the experience gained in character animation at the Disney studio. The famous art direction of Bambi, which suggests emotion and the feeling of a forest rather than depicting a real forest, was due to the influence of Tyrus Wong, a former painter who provided eastern and painterly influence to the backgrounds. Bambi was re-released to theaters in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was released on VHS in 1989 (Classics Version), 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and digitally remastered and restored for the March 1, 2005 Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The Platinum Edition DVD/Blu-ray Disc went on moratorium on January 31, 2007. The Masterpiece Version was the first Disney Video to be THX certified. Trivia *The author, Felix Salten’s real name was Siegmund Salzmann. *A test animation of baby Bambi stuck on a fallen tree-trunk was sufficiently charming to convince Walt Disney to make the film. *After "Dumbo", this is the second Disney animated feature to be set, possibly, in the present day. *Two asteroids have been named after Bambi and Thumper. *This film was the personal favorite of Walt Disney, but he make Cinderella, this was his fauvorite film. *For the film's DVD and Blu-ray release in 2005, over 110,000 frames were cleaned up individually, requiring more than 9,600 hours of work. This was done from a copy of the original nitrate negative borrowed from the Library of Congress. *Unusually for the time, Disney insisted on children providing the voices for the animals when they were young, instead of using adults mimicking youngsters. *Felix Salten was an insurance clerk who began to write out of boredom. He got the inspiration for the novel during a trip to Italy when he became fascinated with the Italian word "bambino". *There are approximately only 1,000 words of dialog throughout the entire film. *One of the many rejected ideas for this film was to show the hunter being killed by the very forest fire that he had accidentally started. * No matter how skilled the animator, the Disney cartoonists simply could not draw Bambi's father's antlers accurately. This was because of the very complicated perspectives required. To get round the problem, a plaster cast was made of some real antlers which was then filmed at all angles. This footage was then rotoscoped onto animation cells. * The character of Thumper does not appear in Felix Salten's original novel. He was added by Walt Disney to bring some much-needed comic relief to the script. * Before Thumper's name was finalized, he was referred to as "Bobo" in some sketches. * Some scenes of woodland creatures and the forest fire are unused footage from Pinocchio. *The movie was set for a world premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 30 July 1942, but was delayed due to the extended run of Mrs. Miniver. * The film was dubbed into Russian with new lyrics, narration and dialogue prepared by Russian-born Leonid Kinsky. It was also dubbed into many other languages, including Arapaho, to help encourage "Arapaho children to learn and preserve their language." *The hunter who shoots Bambi's mother was originally going to be included as a character in the movie. But, for a man to shoot the mother of the hero, he would have to be clearly cruel and villainous for children to accept him. Since Disney didn't want to be seen as maligning hunters as evil, the character was cut and never shown in the final version of the film. *To design Bambi's scenes, Walt Disney traveled to Argentina in 1941, and there he was inspired in the forests of Neuquén's province, southwest of Argentina. * Bambi was originally supposed to go back to his mother after she was shot and find her in a pool of blood. This idea, however, was scrapped. * Donnie Dunagan, who was the voice for young Bambi, also was the model for Bambi's facial expressions. *In the original script, Bambi was shot instead of his mother, but Walt Disney dismissed the idea and moved the shooting to Bambi's mother. *The first and one of the few Disney features where the songs were not sung by any of the film's characters. Each song was either sung off screen by a soloist or a choir. The next movie to feature this was The Rescuers. *Six-year-old Peter Behn auditioned with several other children for the voice roles of Mother Rabbit's children. When Behn said the line (in reference to Bambi), "Did the young prince fall down?", a casting director who was watching the audition in another room shouted, "Get that kid out of here! He can't act!" However, the Disney animators who heard the audition tape loved the sound of Behn's voice. Behn was called back to the studio, and the character of Thumper was created largely based on his vocal performance. *The opening multiplane shot is one of Disney's biggest uses of the multiplane camera. It had been used on scenes in "The Old Mill", Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. *The classic sound effect, “Castle Thunder”, can be heard a few times when the storm in the "April Shower" sequence is about to start. It's also heard when the storm clouds are beginning to part and the sun begins coming out. *In the original American version of the film, the music for the opening song starts at the film's opening. However, in all the foreign versions, it oddly plays over the Walt Disney Pictures logo and the singing wrongly begins when the word "Bambi" shows up, whereas in the American versions, the singing begins at the "Walt Disney presents" screen. *"Man" was ranked the #20 villain on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest heroes and villains, the only character on the list not to appear on-screen. Soundtrack listing # Main Title (Love Is A Song) - The Jud Conlon Chorus and the Mellomen # Morning In The Woods/The Young Prince/Learning To Walk # Exploring/Say Bird/Flower # Little April Shower - The Jud Conlon Chorus and the Mellomen # The Meadow/Bambi Sees Faline/Bambi Gets Annoyed # Gallop Of The Stags/The Great Prince Of The Forest/Man # Autumn/The First Snow/Fun On The Ice # The End Of Winter/New Spring Grass (Bird Chorus)/Tragedy In The Meadow # Wintery Winds # Let's Sing A Gay Little Spring Song # It Could Even Happen To Flower # Bambi Gets Twitterpated/Stag Fight # Looking For Romance (I Bring You A Song - The Jud Conlon Chorus and the Mellomen) # Man Returns # Fire/Reunion/Finale (Love Is A Song - The Jud Conlon Chorus and the Mellomen) # Rain Drops (Demo Recording) # Bonus Interview – Introduced by Richard Kiley: Walt Disney # Bonus Interview – Introduced by Richard Kiley: Ollie Johnston And Frank Thomas # Bonus Interview – Introduced by Richard Kiley: Henry Mancini On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes Love is a Song on the |red disc, Little April Shower on the green disc, and Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song) on the purple disc. And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes Little April Shower on another green disc. The original 1942 release included two additional songs (that were subsequently removed): #"Twitterpated": (Based on Friend Owl's lecture on the amorous effects of spring) written by Helen Bliss, Robert Sour, and Henry Manners. #"Thumper Song": written by Helen Bliss, Robert Sour and Henry Manners. Voice cast Supervising animators * Franklin Thomas (Bambi and Thumper) * Milton Kahl (Bambi and Thumper) * Eric Larson (Bambi and Thumper) * Oliver M. Johnston, Jr. (Bambi and Thumper) * Ward Kimball (Faline) Sequence directors * James Algar (Bambi and Thumper) * Bill Roberts (Bambi and Thumper) * Norman Wright (Bambi and Thumper) * Sam Armstrong (Bambi and Thumper) * Paul Satterfield (Bambi and Thumper) * Graham Heid (Bambi and Thumper) * Ward Kimball (Faline) Category:Disney animated features canon Category:1942 films